In Brief - Working at Height Regulations

Falls from height are the single biggest cause of workplace deaths and one of the main causes of serious injury.

In order to help prevent accidents of this type, revised Regulations came into force on 6 April 2005. The Work at Height Regulations (WAHR) 2005 replaced all earlier Regulations concerning working at height and implemented the EC Temporary Work at Height Directive on minimum health and safety requirements for the use of equipment for work at height.

One key effect of the revised Regulations was to remove the ‘2 metre’ rule. A place is ‘at height’ if there is a risk of a fall liable to cause personal injury.

The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on the regulations can be found here.